


Why

by GallifreyanFairytale



Series: OQ Prompt Party 2017 [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, F/M, OQ Prompt Party, semi-inspired by a song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 20:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11882364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale
Summary: "tell me how we're not alikebut we work so welland we don't even know why"for day two of OQ Prompt Party week, based on prompts 101, 130, & 162





	Why

**Author's Note:**

> this was just a drabble at the beginning, but then I kept writing and it ended up being inspired by the song 'Why' by Sabrina Carpenter

Regina loved the rain. She loved seeing the sky turn to an eerie shade of grey as the clouds rolled over it. She loved to watch lightning shoot across the sky, lighting up the darkness. She loved the rumbles of thunder that followed each lightning strike.

 

Robin hated the rain. He hated seeing the sky turn from happy blue into a sad shade of grey. He hated the lightning through the window distracting him from what he was supposed to be doing. He hated the booms of thunder that seemed to interrupt his every thought.

 

Regina was always cold. Her hands had been cold as long as she could remember. She always took a jacket or sweater with her, no matter how hot it was outside, because she was chilled to the bone as soon as she stepped indoors.

 

Robin was always warm. His ex-girlfriend preferred his hands to gloves, because she claimed they were warmer. He only ever wore a coat in the dead of winter because if it wasn’t well below freezing, he simply wasn’t cold.

 

Regina was having a very good day. Raindrops were lazily dripping out of the sky. It was a bit chilly, but nothing a warm cup of coffee couldn’t fix. It was the beginning of fall, so the trees were decorated with beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow. Regina smiled to herself as she sipped on her coffee, making her way down the street to work. She loved days like these because hardly anyone was walking since the rain had already started. But Regina didn’t care about the sprinkles, and she had an umbrella if it got too heavy.

 

Robin was having a very bad day. It had already started raining by the time he made it out the door, and he wasn’t about to walk to work in the rain, so he got in a taxi. Turns out, most of New York City seemed to have the same idea as Robin, making the traffic even worse than normal. Robin tried to distract himself by looking outside, but it just made him upset to see that the leaves were already changing. The ground was littered with dead leaves and it was only a matter of time before the leaves were all gone from the trees, signaling the end of fall. Robin hated days like these - the traffic, the rain, the change of seasons - he just never found joy in it.

 

By the end of the day, the rain had mostly cleared up. The ground was still wet and the trees still dripped with evidence that it had been raining all day, but there was no longer any rain falling from the sky, at least in the side of the city where Regina worked. She left work around four, ready for the walk home.

 

By the end of the day, it was still pouring down rain. The clouds were an even darker shade of grey than they had been in the morning, and it was easy to hear the rain pounding against the windows. Robin did  _ not  _ want to wait in traffic, though, so when he left work at 4:15, he pulled out his umbrella and braced himself for the long walk home.

 

The closer Regina got to her apartment building, the darker the sky got. The scattered clouds with a bit of bright blue sky peeking through them turned into thick, grey, clouds that still looked heavy with rain.

 

The closer Robin got to his apartment building, the lighter the rain got. The dark clouds gradually lightened, and the pouring rain turned into rain that was much more tolerable.

 

Regina was so busy looking up at the sky, fascinated at how the colors blended together, that she accidentally bumped into someone walking the opposite direction of her. “Oh!” she exclaimed as she looked at him, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t-- Robin?”

 

Robin was so focused on getting home as soon as he could that he didn’t noticed the distracted woman walking towards him. She bumped into him, causing Robin to suddenly stop. “Oh!” the woman exclaimed. Robin felt like he knew that voice, and when he saw her face, he realized why. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t-- Robin?”

 

“Regina,” Robin breathed. He assumed she had moved out of the city, at least, if not across the country. The two hadn’t exactly had a nice break up. “I, uh, didn’t realize you were still living in the city.”

 

Regina shrugged, “I couldn’t leave a city this beautiful, so I decided to stay and risk eventually running into you again. ...And here we are.”

 

Robin raised an eyebrow. “‘Beautiful’?”

 

“You have to learn to see the beauty in the dreariness. You never did listen to me when I told you that, did you?”

 

Robin sighed. “Maybe I should--” A loud crack of thunder interrupted Robin and caused him to jump while Regina looked up at the sky. Rain began pouring down and while Regina smiled, Robin groaned, “Can we take this somewhere with a roof?”

 

“Oh, right! You don’t like storms. I know a good place just around the corner, follow me.”

 

~

 

The coffee shop was crowded with people hoping to wait out the rain, so Regina and Robin grabbed a table in a back corner where they could talk and let other voices hide what they were saying from everyone else.

 

“You cut your hair,” was the first thing Robin said once they were seated. “And you’re leaving it curled now.” Regina’s hair used to be long, and because of how long and thick it was, her natural curls had a hard time showing. But since Robin had last seen her, most of her hair had been cut off, and it was allowed to curl now.

 

Regina shrugged. “I wanted a trim, and I decided, why not try something completely different?”

 

Robin didn’t believe Regina was telling the entire truth for a second. “Oh? Is that the only reason?”

 

“...Yes?” Regina sighed and shook her head, “No,” she looked down at the table. “When my hair was long, it just kept reminding me of you. How you would run your fingers through it to calm me, how you braided it when you got bored. It got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore, so I got it chopped off and let it curl.”

 

“You look beautiful either way.”

 

Regina glanced up and gave Robin a half-smile, “Thanks.”

 

There was silence between them for several minutes before Robin spoke up, “What we had was good, you know.”

 

“I know. But Robin, think of the logistics. You and I are just so different… how could it ever work?”

 

Robin shook his head, “I don’t know. I just know it did, somehow, for as long as we were together. We were like fire and ice.”

 

Regina giggled, “Even moreso because I’m always cold and you’re always hot.”

 

“Well, if you’re asking me, I think you’re rather hot as well.”

 

“Robin!”

 

“Sorry.”

 

It was a few seconds before Regina responded. “You don’t really think we could work...like...for good, do you?”

 

“I don’t know. You kinda broke up with me before we got that far.”

 

“Yeah… I’m sorry for that.”

 

“You’re sorry for breaking up with me?” Robin questioned.

 

“Honestly?” Regina frowned, “Yeah. But I couldn’t see the logistics working out for us, because there are so many little things we disagree on, and--”

 

“Did you ever think to throw logic out the window? Even just for a moment, so you could listen to your heart?”

 

Regina looked down. “No.”

 

“That’s what I figured.” Robin stood up to leave, “It was nice talking to you, but I should probably be getting home.”

 

“Wait!” Regina called after Robin as he weaved through the people in the crowded coffee shop. Regina wasn’t able to catch up with him until they were back outside in the rain. “Robin, please. I’m sorry, I really am, but--”

 

“I know you like to rely on logic, Regina, and I know you worry about sometimes small things. Maybe you’re right in this case. Maybe we couldn’t really ever work out.” Robin began to to take his umbrella out, but stopped when he heard Regina respond.

 

“No. I was wrong. It doesn’t matter how different we are, because we  _ do  _ work so well together, and I should have listened to my heart instead of my mind. Breaking up with you was the worst decision of my life. Maybe the stars crossed right or something, but we were the best thing that ever happened to me, Robin. And I am  _ so  _ sorry I didn’t listen to you all those times you told me to follow my heart every once in awhile.”

 

Robin turned to look at Regina and he noticed that tears had begun to gather in the corners of her eyes. He sighed, “My mind is telling me I shouldn’t want you back, but my heart is still in love with you, Regina, and you know I always listen to my heart.”

 

Regina smiled. “So does that mean…?”

 

“Do you want to do dinner Friday night? I can pick you up at six?”

 

“Yes!” Regina threw her arms around Robin. “Thank you. Thank you so, so, much.”

 

“You’re very welcome.” Robin ran his hands through Regina’s hair. It was sopping wet at this point, but it was still slightly wavy. “I hope we work out even better this time, because I don’t know what you’re going to do with your hair if we break up again.”

 

Regina pulled away so she could look at Robin. “Me too.” Regina’s mind was telling her not too, but Regina was done listening to her mind for the moment. Just this once, she would follow Robin’s advice and listen to her heart.

 

She raised herself onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against Robin’s. So what if they were impossibly different? Regina was in love with Robin, and she wasn’t going to let small differences ruin her relationship again.


End file.
